The present invention relates to the field of food preparation and more particularly to poultry strips or tenders and the preparation of poultry strips or tenders. In greater particularity the present invention relates to a method of slicing tenders to achieve the maximum number of substantially equal sized tenders and the tenders resulting therefrom.
Food safety guidelines call for cooking poultry products to a safe minimum internal temperature of 165° F. (about 74° C.) and cooking most beef, pork and other red meats, other than organ meats, the a safe minimum internal temperature of 145° F. (about 63° C.) as measured using a food thermometer. Typically, such temperature measurements are taken AT the thickest portion of the poultry or meat product. However, poultry products such as chicken or turkey breasts or tenders and beef or pork tenderloins can have irregular shapes which often vary in thickness. As referred to herein, tenders will encompass any meat products which have these irregular or tear drop shapes. The term tender may refer to a product which has not been sliced into smaller portions or the resulting smaller portions. The term jumbo or jumbo tender, as used herein, refers to a meat product that will be reduced in size as by slicing in accordance with the disclosed method.
As a result of the irregularities in shape, some portions of the poultry or meat may be over cooked while other portions may be undercooked resulting in a food product that is less palatable. Additionally, due to variations in thickness cooking times may be prolonged or extended in order to achieve the safe minimum internal cooking temperatures. Such prolonged cooking times may also result in a meat or poultry product having a less palatable texture or taste due to loss of moisture and/or degradation of the proteins.
Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3, the prior art tenders and the method of preparing tenders from poultry breast is depicted. In FIG. 2 the standard breast from FIG. 1 is laid on its flat side and the substantially uniform portion of the breast is removed by starting the incision just below the thickest part of the breast. The uniform portion is then split into two substantially uniform tenders weighing between 22 and 31 grams per the industry standard. Conventionally, thickness has always been considered measuring vertically through the thickest portion of a tenderloin placed on a flat surface with the membrane side either facing down or up.